Here I am in Phuket Thailand for Christmas with my family. I arrived and a day later went to Bangkok to interview an SRS surgeon that was recommended by my therapist. I went to the PAI clinic which is owned by Dr Preecha. Dr Preecha is credited with penile invesrion techniques development and amongst his students is Dr Suporn. It was a really plesant trip and I met with his recommended surgeon Dr Sutin. I believe practice makes perfect and my criteria requires the surgeon to do a couple of SRSs per week. Looked at examples of his work - both the good and the bad results and discussed the reasons for problems. I also ckecked out the quality of the hospital which was good. I had met with Dr suporn, a few monts ago, and felt that his clinic lookd aged, the hospital he used was not the quality I expected and while he performed multiple surgeries a week  - it seems factory like.  He is the super star of SRS in Thailand and heavily booked requiring 8 months wait. I am doing my RLE in Bangkok and have found a great serviced apartment. Any comments on PAI and Dr Sutin would be appreciated.

I realise you're after more info, but it would be great if you could share more about your experiences. You're in pretty unique position there, and I'd love to hear more about it.

Could you expand more you your meetings and thoughts about the surgeons you meet? Not many people have a chance to compare them, and I don't think I've read any reports from people doing so. I also don't think I've read anything from someone with an Asian background, and even better I get the impression you understand both Thai and western culture. I always wonder how people's views on Thai surgeons are distorted by cultural misunderstandings, especially as I've had a few myself.

When it's important I like to understand someone as fully as possible, what motivates them, their integrity, the quality of their work, etc. I'm a bit focussed on Suporn lately, but I don't really feel I have any understanding of who he is. The others even less so.

Here are a few examples.

You just said its factory like, and I assume that's meant in a negative sense, and yet he's the super star – but that's a bit contradictory. Why is that?

You didn't mention the quality of his actual work/results?

Suporn invented a new technique, and I'm curious why he did, and if he's continued doing that kind of research. If he did continue, why don't we hear anything? Perhaps he's coasting on his earlier work and doesn't bother anymore?  Suporn's technique also has a much longer recovery – any idea if this makes any difference to results? I'd hope it's not some marketing thing so he can says different is better and so worth the extra cost (and suffering).

I've read he's a quiet reserved man who's very much focussed on his work more than anything else, perhaps the quiet genius type – but this could easily be a western misinterpretation of him, especially as he is the most expensive surgeon there. It could also be that the people writing these things are about to get surgery and hardly about to challenge him in any way. He must actually be a very wealthy man, especially in local terms. I've read he's always extremely busy though, so not sure what he does with it all. What's he really like?

Is he actually the best (results not value, since value is a personal judgement) and is there any way of knowing? Are the Thai surgeons doing work on foreigners in it for the money exclusively (not that I care, it just helps put the pieces together). Do they do local work as well, or at a different price, or any charity?

You also mentioned looking at good and bad results and the reasons for it. Could you expand on that? How much is due to the surgeon's inconsistency vs the patient? How consistent are the results? What's the chance of problems and what do they do about it?

Anything important I didn't think of, since I am western after all.

I live in a major city in Asia and am eurasian and I have been a developer of villas in Phuket. It's quite an interesting suggestion to evaluate these surgeons. Perhaps we can come up with some evaluation criteria. I have seen another surgeon but my views may cause some anger and dispute so I thought I would only go thru those that I thought passed my initial requirements.

Dr Suporn is considered a superstar by the girls. He is considered the best in Thailand. The top surgeons here all basically follow the same technique. It's not a rocket scientist operation. So it's the repetition of the procedure that develops the skills.

I look at the after care and the quality of the hospital in case there are serious complications.  Quality hospitals  have modern equipment and attracts better quality doctors and nurses which in turn brings the better clients. Remember you can have a full medical check up with blood work, ecg, X rays, exercise stress test, ultra sound etc for USD 500 at Bangkok Hospital which is of real high quality. 

One problem that seems to repeat itself from srs is the infection. The new vaginal has a tendency to tear a bit from initial dialations at the low point near the anus.  We need to practice wiping our anus going from the rear and not the front. We need to change how we wipe this area. Most infections come from faecies coming in contact with the small tears in the new vaginal.  Thus the after care and good supervision is important.

The recommended time in hospital varies from 5 days to a week - depending on your budget. Then in a serviced apartments or hotel   for a couple of more weeks. Ideally if you can spare a month it would be best. This gives time to address any problems as the clinic is nearby.

There is so much more to tell and I an looking for comments on Dr Sutin. Enough has been said about Suporn.

Hope this helps.

So far as criteria goes, I think its quite difficult. There's the obvious things like function, aesthetics, safety, care, cost and so on. I expect all the surgeons would tell you how great they are, they are after all making money from it. Its going to be really hard unless you know a lot of people who've been to these surgeons, or are a medical expert yourself.

In cases where I'm not sure if exaggerating or not telling the truth and I can't check the facts, then I usually ask indirect questions where its much harder to lie.

You could ask them what other work they do apart from SRS, and ask all about that. From the effort they put into whatever else they do you can double-check how much time and focus is left over for SRS.

In Dr Preecha's case I'd look into his other students, and see how they have performed. If they are all really outstanding then that suggests Dr Sutin would be also, and the reverse is also true. How many of them moved into other area's? That gives an idea how how committed they all are, and how good Dr Preecha is at judging them and hence Dr Sutin.

I also like to ask questions I know the answers to, especially if they are difficult, to see what they say and how they say it. That gives an idea of how to interpret what they tell you when you don't know the answers. It can help by starting with this, and give them impression you know a lot less than you do. If they are going to lie/exaggerate then it becomes more likely.

I sometimes people ask their opinions of other's in the same field. Often they won't say anything, but its more information either way.

At the end of it I try to put everything together to make sense of it. Perhaps this explains the odd questions in my previous post.

Thanks for some ideas on questions. I'm buying a great apartment in Bangkok and will be checking a few additional surgeons and i like the idea of checking Preecha's results but then again Dr Suporn was his student. I've got time as as I go full time RLE. I kinda look carefully at the after care and I accept that there may be a need for some corrective surgery. In my discussion with Dr Suporn on the aesthetics he did mention that there are some follow up work that can be done.

I will work on my criteia on a consistant basis. Will keep updating this experience. Thank you.